In this newfangled NFL, the questionable roughing the passer call on Mathias Kiwanuka that kept alive a drive, negated a fumble recovery by the Giants and led to a touchdown and their ultimate defeat has become the norm.

On a third-and-six from the Giants’ 37-yard line with 9:15 left in the third quarter, Kiwanuka got by his man and hit Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo on his shoulder pads and his arm slid up and hit Romo’s neck as he released the ball.

Up the field, cornerback Terrell Thomas had stripped wide receiver Cole Beasley after he made a 17-yard catch and was trying to secure the ball.

“That’s how they’re officially the game these days,” said Kiwanuka, who was also flagged for an unnecessary roughness penalty. “It’s not something we can control. As guys who have been around the league for a while, we’ve seen the change and we have to be able to make that adjustment.

“That’s tough. I felt like I pulled up on him but the ref saw it a different way.”

Kiwanuka had two of the Giants’ 11 penalties in their heartbreaking 24-21 loss to Dallas Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium. The Cowboys also had 11 penalties but the calls on the Giants seem to come at the more inopportune times.

The penalties, however, was just part of an uneven performance by the Giants that led to their demise.

Victor Cruz had a costly fumble that was returned 50 yards for a touchdown.

It was a call that left coach Tom Coughlin livid that the officials didn’t blow the whistle before the fumble.

“I don’t know what the officials saw,” Coughlin said. “There were four guys battling one guy and he’s up in the air. He’s still spinning. We started the year off knowing full well the officials were going to blow the whistle this season for every play. You hope that the whistle should blow. For them to have a touchdown on a play like that is just believable.”

Thomas couldn’t recover a fourth-quarter fumble near the sidelines that rolled out of bounds.

“I didn’t know if it was going to stop so my mindset was just to jump on it,” Thomas said. “I kind of pushed it forward. Looking back I probably could’ve scooped it. I’m beating myself up.”

Even so, there’s more. Twice, the Giants failed to score a touchdown after having a first-and-goal inside the 10-yard line. They still can’t execute a screen pass.

There was questionable play calling. Why didn’t the Giants stick with the run against a Dallas defense missing three of its top five linebackers. Eli Manning and his receivers continued to have miscommunications.

“Yeah,” said Thomas when asked if he thought the Giants were past making such mistakes. “But honestly, some of those calls were a little iffy.”

Victor Cruz, though, took a diplomatic approach to the mistakes, miscues and mismanagement on the part of the Giants.

“It’s just the sign of a hard-fought game,” he said. “Teams just getting after it. You can’t fault our guys for battling tooth and nail to the very end.”